1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates, in general, to a guard for preventing splashing or sloshing of hot or cold liquids from a drinking container such as a disposable plastic cup or other drinking container with which the guard is used.
2. Information Disclosure Statement
It is often desired to move from one place to another a container of hot or cold liquids, such, as for example, a STYROFOAM cup of hot coffee, without sloshing the contents thereof, particularly as occurs during any quick movement of the cup, as for example, when it is jostled and the liquid moves about in the cup from side to side.
It is therefore desirable to have a guard that can be used with an existing cup such as a disposable cup, of expanded synthetic resinous material, such as that sold under the trademark STYROFOAM or another type of plastic or ceramic drinking apparatus, without modifying the cup, and which guard substantially prevents the splashing or sloshing of the hot or cold liquid from the cup as the cup is moved. Also, it is desirable to have such a guard that provides a means for the drinking of beverages from a cup without splashing or sloshing the beverage from the cup.
A preliminary patentability search in Class 220, subclasses 369, 374, 719, 731,703, and 718, produced the following patents, some of which may be relevant to the present invention: Austin, U.S. Pat. No. 1,739,627, issued Dec. 17, 1929; Ross, U.S. Pat. No. 1,811,896, issued Jun. 30, 1931; Campomar, U.S. Pat. No. 2,600,479, issued Jun. 17, 1952; Robinson, U.S. Pat. No. 2,858,041, issued Oct. 28, 1958; Smith, U.S. Pat. No. 3,360,161, issued Dec. 26, 1967; and Corey et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,130,215, issued Dec. 19, 1978.